New-look Kentucky whips Florida

As re-inventions go, Kentucky’s put the super in Super Tuesday.

An 88-79 victory over Florida proved that Coach John Calipari’s pre-game talk about “tweaks” was more than showmanship and wishful thinking.

Instead of dependence on Tyler Ulis and Jamal Murray, Kentucky enjoyed mixing their inevitable contributions with production from several teammates. The more was definitely merrier.

Five UK players reached double-figure points for only the fifth time this season, and only the second time since the Eastern Kentucky game on Dec. 9.

“What we’ve been trying to do,” Calipari said. “We’re building confidence.”

Kentucky’s victory, which was sullied by a second half that saw the two teams commit 36 fouls and shoot 53 free throws, was a cavalcade of surprises. UK’s big men, who did not do “anything” in Saturday’s loss at Vanderbilt (Calipari’s word), were productive.

The “bigs” combined for 32 points and 29 rebounds.

Alex Poythress, who posted a double-double (12 points, 10 rebounds), acknowledged being motivated by his scoreless night at Vandy.

“Coming off a loss, you always want to step up and play big,” he said. “Nobody likes losing. So we wanted to get that bad taste out of our mouth.”

Skal Labissiere, practically missing in action for much of the season, started and scored 11 points while grabbing eight rebounds in a productive 15 minutes.

“If he can give us 15, 20 minutes like that, we’re pretty good,” Calipari said of Labissiere, who had his highest point total since scoring 12 against Missouri on Jan. 27.

For the first time in months (all season?), Kentucky did not ride Murray. He didn’t reach double-digit points until midway through the second half.

Murray led Kentucky with 21 points, but took only 10 shots (his fewest in a game since Nov. 30).

Calipari applauded the turn to quality over quantity.

“No one wants to coach a volume shooter,” he said. “At any level.”

Kentucky improved its record to 22-8 overall and 12-5 in the Southeastern Conference. The latter kept UK in first place in the league.

Besides Labissiere, other contributors included Isaiah Briscoe, who scored 13, the most he’d scored since the Missouri game.

Ulis, the steady leader, had 19 points and 11 assists.

Florida, which had its flickering hopes for a NCAA Tournament bid snuffed, fell to 17-13 overall and 8-9 in the league.

Center John Egbunu scored a career-high 27 points. But for much of the game, the Gators struggled to score from the field and the foul line. The Gators matched UK’s 29 field goals, but made only 16 of 37 free throws.

A front line of Labissiere, who started for the first time since the loss to Ohio State on Dec. 19, and Poythress gave Kentucky its most plausible low-post threats.

Sure enough, Kentucky seemed intent to establish a post presence on offense. The first possession went to Poythress in the post. His pass went awry, but Poythress said the Cats wanted to see how Florida would react to the ball going into the post.

Through the first 10 minutes, Poythress and Labissiere had their moments. Labissiere executed an up-and-under to put Kentucky ahead 12-11.

Labissiere had six points barely five minutes into the game. He had scored a total of five points in the three most recent games.

The idea seemed to be to take a load off Murray and Ulis. Murray did not take a shot until swishing a three at the 14:20 mark.

Surprises abounded as Kentucky extended its lead to as much as 32-18 with 6:42 left. Briscoe, who had struggled to make a perimeter shot, swished a pair.

The Cats even posted up Murray and played zone briefly. As if on cue, Florida hit a three-pointer and UK switched back to man-to-man.

On the negative side, the changes seemed to adversely affect the chemistry between Ulis and Murray. Three times the pair failed to connect on passes, which led to turnovers.

Given Florida’s inept shooting, it appeared Kentucky might have an easy time of it.

Then the Gators closed the half on a 14-4 run to reduce Kentucky’s lead to 36-32 at intermission. And had Florida made more than four of 10 free throws in that stretch, UK might have trailed.

When Florida closed within 34-30, UK called time with 1:25 left. No more surprises. The Cats went to Murray and Ulis. Murray missed two jumpers. Ulis missed one, but fed Marcus Lee for a dunk.

Labissiere was the first to break through, hitting a short jumper off a pick-and-roll with Murray at the 15:09 mark.

Then Ulis hit a three-pointer, pushing his total to 12 points and giving UK a 48-38 lead. Florida called time with 14:07 left.

Yet another surprise came barely 30 seconds later. Dominique Hawkins hit only his second three-pointer since the Louisville game. That put Kentucky ahead 51-40.

Florida later got within 54-47. Murray stemmed the tide with two free throws. That gave him 10 points with 9:16 left. On the next possession, Murray hit a three-pointer.

Some things never change nor would Kentucky want them to change.

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This story was originally published March 1, 2016 at 9:27 PM with the headline "New-look Kentucky whips Florida."